Chinese herbal medicine 'can be eﬀective in
treating rheumatoid arthritis'
A traditional Chinese herbal remedy has
shown similar eﬃcacy to an approved drug
therapy for the treatment of rheumatoid
arthritis in a new clinical study.

Led by a team at the Peking Union
Medical College Hospital, the research
revealed that Triptergium wilfordii Hook F
- or TwHF for short - can relieve joint pain
and inﬂammation just as well as
methotrexate, a standard drug treatment
that is frequently prescribed to control the
symptoms of active rheumatoid arthritis in
the West.

TwHF is used in traditional Chinese
medicine to treat joint pain, swelling and
inﬂammation, and is already approved for
the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in
China. It contains more than 300
compounds, including diterpenoids, which
are thought to be able to suppress genes
controlling inﬂammation and dampen
immune responses.

ARTHRITIS NEWS

To formally evaluate its safety and
eﬃcacy, the scientists randomly assigned
207 patients with active rheumatoid
arthritis to one of three treatment groups
- methotrexate 12.5 mg once a week, TwHF
20 mg three times a day or a combination
of the two over a period of 24 weeks.

Results published in the Annals of the
Rheumatic Diseases revealed the
proportion of patients achieving the target
of a 50 per cent improvement in the
number of tender or swollen joints and
other criteria including pain, disability and
disease severity was just under 46.5 per
cent among those treated with
methotrexate alone, compared to 55 per
cent of those receiving TwHF.

Moreover just under 77 per cent of
those treated with both reached the
treatment goal, suggesting a combination
of treatments could yield the best results.
However, it was also noted that 24 weeks
is too short a time to evaluate disease

Podiatry Review Vol 71:3

progression, and that the dose of
methotrexate used in the trial was lower
than the typical dosage.

A spokeswoman for Arthritis Research
UK commented: "Previous trials of TwHF,
also known as thunder god vine, have
shown it has some anti-inﬂammatory
properties and immunosuppressive
actions, making the compound a
potentially useful substance for treating
rheumatoid arthritis.

"However, it has well-documented side
eﬀects such as stomach pain, diarrhoea,
nausea, headaches, skin rash, hair loss,
infertility in men and failure to menstruate
in women. There are serious safety
concerns about this substance and its risks
appear to outweigh its beneﬁts."

See more at:
http://www.arthritisresearchuk.org/news
/general-news/2014/april